Experimental study of thermophysical properties of coal gangue at initial stage of spontaneous combustion

The specific heat capacity (C_p), thermal conductivity (λ), and thermal diffusion coefficient (D) of coal gangue (CG) are the main factors that affect the self-ignition potential for heat transferring from burning center to the ground surface. In this paper, the thermophysical properties of CG were investigated by transient plane source method. The correlations and sensitivity analysis were performed to characterize the degree of influence of the thermophysical parameters (C_p, λ, and D) dependence on temperature. The mean values of C_p, λ, and D for CG were at a range of 0.73-0.89 J g^-1 K^-1, 0.44-0.76 W m^-1 K^-1, and 0.26-0.43 mm² s^-1, respectively. Compared with coal, CG were located in the low area (S_c < 2) with higher value of λ and D, but lower value of C_p. Results also showed that 70 °C was a critical point for CG at which some kinds of mutation took place in thermophysical properties. The comparison between the experimental data and the correlation outputs exhibited consistency.